It’s the end of November, and if you’re the type that waits at least until December 1st to start celebrating the Christmas holiday season, then Scarlet Moon Records has got your first offering of Festivus tunes to start you off right. Scarlet Moon Christmas Volume II brings back the festive styles of last year’s Volume I and continues their tradition of arranging both classic Christmas songs and video game tunes into remixes ready to get you in the spirit. Featuring the likes of composer Vince Dicola (Transformers, Rocky IV), Osamu Kubota (Beatmania IIDX), Norihiko Hibino (Metal Gear Solid) and performers Grant “Stemage” Henry (Metroid Metal), Mustin & William Carlos Reyes (The OneUps) plus a lot more, the album gives a diverse offering to listeners.

If you’re a Earthbound fan, you may have heard of the fan game Mother 4, which was a homebrew created as a unofficial sequel to Earthbound (aka: Mother 3). There’s a bit of history with the fan game, so if you haven’t heard of it before now, I suggest checking it out. The music for the game has since come out, composed by Shane Mesa, and includes both original compositions specifically created for the fan game, as well as licensed covers from the original Earthbound game.

The Mother 4 Soundtraaaack​!​! features 60 full tracks, with 8 being from previous Mother/Earthbound games. Composed by Shame Mesa and Mastered by DJ Cutman, the album is a ridiculously dedicated tribute to the Earthbound series as a whole, which was originally composed by Metroid‘s Hirokazu “Hip” Tanaka, Hiroshi Kanazu and Keiichi Suzuki.

Currently available under the Gamechops license, the Mother 4 Soundtraaaack!! can be purchased digitally on Bandcamp, iTunes and Google Play.

Update: I was a bit confused by the details. Turns out the game itself is changing names due to copyright and will be getting a different soundtrack for its full release, but this is the original soundtrack Mesa created before leaving the project. Thanks DJMiniboss for the information.

Performer and videogame soundtrack vocalist Jillian Aversa has teamed up in a collaboration featuring the famous title theme from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time performed jointly with YouTube musician Erutan (Kate Covington). This ethereal rendition of the theme, titled “Chrysalis,” is arranged by Jillian and her husband, Andrew “zircon” Aversa, and includes her lyrics and vocal work alongside Erutan’s ocarina, harp, and glockenspiel performances combined with mood settings and costumes.

“After taking a more literal approach with the characters in my second Zelda music video last year, I wanted to return to a freer interpretation for this one. When I think of the Zelda games, I don’t just picture Link and Zelda, but the whole world of Hyrule — with all its magic and charm. What does this world look like from the perspective of the critters that inhabit it? That is the question that inspired our video concept. Kate and I each play three different animal characters, all coming together to witness the metamorphosis of a moth.” – Jillian Aversa

Jillian and Erutan’s The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time“Title Theme” tribute has been posted to Jillian’s YouTube channel, where music videos paying homage to Final Fantasy VI, NieR, Destiny, Metal Gear Solid 3 and Game of Thrones can also be found.

Sam Dillard the creator of Metroid Cinematica and Chrono Cinematica is running a Kickstarter campaign for Zelda Cinematica which ends in just over three days, and it already over 900% funded. The trailer for the project is above and is described by its creator below:

Over an hour of uniquely realized music from what is amongst the most iconic soundtracks in all of gaming, Zelda Cinematica seeks to present to you the musical score from that epic Hollywood Zelda movie that lifelong fans have conjured in our heads while sitting in the back of the classroom drawing tiny worlds with Link fighting monsters! (Unless that was just me…) An album with a primarily energetic symphony sound but ranging across ambient soundscapes and electronic atmospheres as well. Years of planning, feature-length representing themes from the entire series, officially licensed, and available on all major digital platforms as well as collectible disc albums!

Sam Dillard

The album will be available digitally, on CD, and on vinyl at different backing levels. Also if you missed out on picking up either Metroid Cinematica or Chrono Cinematica you can also find them on the Kickstarter Campaign page.

If this is project you’re interested in, you’ve only got a few days left to back it! Have you heard the previous Cinematica albums?

MAGFest, the annual gathering for people who love video games, music, and video game music, took place at its usual spot in National Harbor earlier this year. Though the festival’s musical offerings tend toward electronic fare, there are some musicians keeping the tradition of acoustic music alive.

Among these musicians is the Videri String Quartet. The Boston-based ensemble took center stage twice over the MAGFest weekend to perform tasteful arrangements of music from games like Chrono Trigger, Donkey Kong, and Journey. After their shows were over, I sat down to chat with three integral members of the group: Roselie Samter (Viola), Lizzie Jones (Violin), and David Peacock (Arranger). Lounging on the beds of their hotel room, exhausted but still reveling in the thrill of the festival, the three begin to tell me the story of their group: their mission, history, and where they’re headed next.

In terms of mashups between musical genres and styles, I can safely say combining EDM and A Capella was never one I thought about before. However, Youtube VGM vocal star Smooth McGroove teamed up with the people at GameChops and decided “Why the heck not?”. Thus, we have Smooth McGroove Remixed Volume 2.

Remixed by music producers like A_rival, Dj CUTMAN, Grimecraft, and James Landino., the album features licensed EDM remixes of classic videogame music from Super Mario 64, Undertale, Pokemon, Mega Man and many more based on the the a capella talents of Mr. McGroove. The album is available now for purchase on ITunes and Google play, on Spotify for your listening pleasure, or you can just watch the neat music videos like the one above.

I can safely say that an a capella of Castlevania‘s “Vampire Killer” remixed into a danceable electronic music was never something I asked for, but I’m appreciative at the quality put into the production of such a chimera of VGM and can say I give such an effort a thumbs up.

OSVOSTOTY is our annual rundown of our picks for best game music, indie music and more from the previous year.

You might find it disconcerting to read that I, as a video game music writer, didn’t find that much music in 2016 that set my heart on fire. While I penned nearly 90 posts for OSV and heard loads of great music there were only a handful of albums I’ve stuck to with a passion. I’d be hard pressed to sort out a Top Ten list but thankfully the OSVOSTOTYs are a much simpler and personal selection.

So click on in, dear readers, and find out what music from 2016 was special enough (and weird enough) to penetrate my curmudgeonly old hide.

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